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Maths at King's College London (KCL). Job opportunities
Hi. I am interested in eventually getting a financial job in the city, possibly as an actuary, banker, accountant etc.
I was wondering if a maths degree from KCL would be good enough for me to get a good well-paid financial career?
I feel like the better universities, e.g. Oxbridge, UCL, Imperial, LSE, Warwick etc will overshadow KCL so there'll be no jobs left for me! Am I being stupid?
Also, at the moment my offer is for maths but i'm considering of changing it to maths with management and finance. Is this a good idea or does maths alone sound better?
Thanks!
I was wondering if a maths degree from KCL would be good enough for me to get a good well-paid financial career?
I feel like the better universities, e.g. Oxbridge, UCL, Imperial, LSE, Warwick etc will overshadow KCL so there'll be no jobs left for me! Am I being stupid?
Also, at the moment my offer is for maths but i'm considering of changing it to maths with management and finance. Is this a good idea or does maths alone sound better?
Thanks!
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It's a good degree, and you will definitely not be overshadowed. You're on the same boat as all the unis you mentioned: as long as you manage to get a 2.1/1st by the end of your degree and get involved in a number of extracurricular activities (join societies/sport clubs and get on the exec etc) and gain experience through involvement with financial stuff and internships, you will stand a good chance of getting a job in finance.
zana
Hi. I am interested in eventually getting a financial job in the city, possibly as an actuary, banker, accountant etc.
Getting into a big-4 accountancy firm won't be a problem, getting into investment banking would be trickier as they tend to filter by university a lot more. KCL's a good uni so it's not out of the question, but you'll need to show you're strong in other ways (good extracurricular activities, summer jobs) so you stand out.
The Orientalist
It's a good degree, and you will definitely not be overshadowed. You're on the same boat as all the unis you mentioned: as long as you manage to get a 2.1/1st by the end of your degree and get involved in a number of extracurricular activities (join societies/sport clubs and get on the exec etc) and gain experience through involvement with financial stuff and internships, you will stand a good chance of getting a job in finance.
nonsense, a degree from KCL is solid but will disadvantage you vis-a-vis investment banking recruiting. Ibanks are elitist pigs, and KCL is not an "elite" uni, simple as that.
KwungSun
nonsense, a degree from KCL is solid but will disadvantage you vis-a-vis investment banking recruiting. Ibanks are elitist pigs, and KCL is not an "elite" uni, simple as that.
sounds like bull**** to me.. i know someone who works on wall street now and went to KCL
hsn
sounds like bull**** to me.. i know someone who works on wall street now and went to KCL
Well wow, your one counterexample has disproven my entire point. I said it will DISADVANTAGE you, not make it absolutely impossible. Look through the investment banking threads and you will find thousands of people agreeing that kings is not a target uni for investment banks. I don't give a crap who you know.
zana
so going into accountancy or becoming an actuary shouldn't be too much of a problem provided i get a 2.1 or first?
Yep, it shouldn't be a problem.
is actuary's pay higher than IB?
It's still a high salary. Secure job though, can't say that about IB.
Simba
Could you provide rough figures for yearly earnings for both, please 
?
?Sure, I can try. From the information available to me it appears that the starting salary for graduate actuarial trainees is about 25000, when you qualify as a full actuary this rises to 40000-50000 and after you have about 10 years experience you can expect at least 100000 ( from www.prospects.ac.uk )
Bankers at top banks will start at 35000 and can make a very sizeable percentage of that as a bonus again making salaries in excess of 50k for a first year banker/trader not uncommon. After a few years this will rise to around 70k base salary and after more years the base salary will be over 150k. What you have to remember is that bonuses are often huge in banking, so a senior employee might "only" make 150k base salary but earn in excess of 500k once their bonuses have been paid out.
There's a lot more information on the pay structure of investment banks in the banking and finance forums btw.
The problem with IB, is that at the moment the country and, well the whole world is falling into an economical recession, thus IB jobs will become scarce. In about two years the economy the recession will have happened, and it will take 5-10 years to pick itself up. During this climb banks will be looking for IBs, as they would have fired many during the recession. If you are wanting to be an IB in about 5/6 years you are very lucky, however if you want to become one now, then you are very unlucky. This is only my prediction from what I have been reading and watching.
Actuarial jobs are not dependent on an active economy, and jobs will always be in high demand. Also, there are 42 applicants to every IB internship, compared to 3.5 to every actuarial internship. My advice is to become an actuarial consultant. With 10 years experience, you can earn around 1,000 pounds a day. It's risky being a consultant, and pays well: if you are willing to take the risk of being an IB, then this risk shouldn't be too big for you.
be_annqt
My sister's friend who is 23 years old is a stockbroker for citigroup (london firm). he went to kingston university and studied film studies.
so obviosly it is possible to get a good job that you want, if you are good enough!!
so obviosly it is possible to get a good job that you want, if you are good enough!!
How in anyway does this help the original poster?
Is KCL still good? Their position in the Times university league table for Mathematics has fallen.
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